Last evening saw the inauguration of Textiles India 2017. Positioned as the first global B2B (business to business) textiles event in India, the exhibition was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India’s contribution to textiles in the world marks it as a major player in the global economy. Currently we stand as the largest producers of cotton and jute, and the second largest producers of silk, denim and manmade fabrics, and the government aims at strengthening the economy by focusing on these leads.

The state of Gujarat has an emotional stakehold in the history of India’s freedom struggle. Mahatma Gandhi started civil resistance movement of Satyagraha in the very state. Textiles India 2017 is being held at the Mahatma Mandir convention centre, which commemorates the philosophy of the leader.

IMG Reliance curated the fashion showcase ‘Symphony of Weaves’ to demonstrate the synergy between handloom and artisan clusters and designer fashion at Textiles India 2017. The thought behind the curation was highlighting the seven key segments, covering cotton, silk, wools, embroidery, hand-dyed and printing and modern sustainable textiles of India. Present for the show were Smriti Irani, Union Minister of Textiles; Ajay Tamta, Minister of State for Textiles; and Mamta Verma, Industries Commissioner of Gujarat.

The show highlighted designs from 31 emerging and leading Indian fashion designers. Sanjay Garg continued to show support for Benarasi silk. Rahul Mishra and Rajesh Pratap Singh showed the evolution of wool through their work. Tarun Tahiliani, Anita Dongre, Sabyasachi, Manish Malhotra, Anamila Khanna and Rohit Bal highlighted the use of hand embroidery in their designs. Manish Arora and Abraham & Thakore were amongst those who demonstrated the use of sustainable recycle fabrics.